Northern Sámi phrasebook

Northern Sámi (davvisámegiella), the Sámi language used in this phrasebook, is the most widely-spoken of the Sámi languages. It is spoken mainly in northern Norway, northern Sweden and much of the Sámi area in Finland. It is used often in towns such as Kiruna (Giron), Utsjoki (Ohcejohka), Kautokeino (Guovdageaidnu) and Karasjok (Kárášjohka). It also acts as a lingua franca among many Sámi who speak other Sámi languages.

The Northern Sámi has four major dialects: Torne, Western Finnmark, Eastern Finnmark, and Sea Sámi. The standard language follow Western Finnmark Kautokeino sub-dialect. The dialects are mutually intelligible, but there are considerable differences in pronunciation, and to some extent also in the vocabulary. The Sea Sámi dialect has adopted strong influences from eastern-group Sámi languages.

Sámi (also spelled Saami or Sami) is a group of languages spoken by the Sámi people who dwell in northern Europe. Their traditional homeland consists of the central and northern parts of Norway and Sweden, northern Finland, and the Kola Peninsula in Russia. They are now a minority in most of this area.

Because of earlier language politics, not all Sámi speak Sámi and some Sámi languages are extinct. There are nine living Sámi languages. They are Uralic languages and thus have many linguistic similarities and some common vocabulary (including many loanwords) with other languages in the family, such as Finnish, Karelian, and Estonian. The similarities are far from enough for understanding, but help in learning the language. Even the Sámi languages are generally not mutually intelligible, but many Sámi understand the neighbouring languages. There are also loanwords from the unrelated Scandinavian languages of Norwegian and Swedish (and for the eastern Sámi languages, from Russian).

"Sámi" is mostly used as a shorthand for Northern Sámi below.